Words from Tom
Farm to Table
Well, folks, I thought I’d comment on this Farm to Table thing that has become locally relevant. I have discovered that many of our customers and friends are not even aware that fresh, locally sourced products have been with The Grill from the beginning. We are still the only restaurant in town where all natural grass-fed steaks are regularly available; and, if you’re not a vegetarian and you haven’t tried one of our grass-fed filets, you’re missing out on something special. Even if you don’t care about the health benefits, good grass-fed beef has a rich depth of flavor, so I recommend you check it out sometime if you’ve been waiting on the sidelines. But beef is just one of the locally raised items on our menu. Our pork is also raised by local farmers, and it’s all natural, so try a Papoose Park Chop. It’s easily the best pork chop in town, at least in my humble opinion. Likewise with our chicken: all natural, locally raised. Then there’s our bread: again, it’s baked to our specs right here in Knoxville, TN at Quality Bakers. And Sweetwater Valley Cheeses. And Cruze Farms milk. Don’t forget Benton’s Bacon. And local produce, organic when we can get it. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to identify reliable suppliers for everything yet, but that’s our objective and always has been before a lot of folks were even talking about it. Come see us. Buy locally. We do.
TW
This is what keeps us coming back!
Last Saturday night, I was sitting at the bar observing the busy comings and goings of our wait staff and customers when an attractive couple sat down near me. They ordered two Old Fashioneds from famous bartender Jo who, as usual, made them with alacrity. But, the lady had observed that Jo had not added any bitters, so she asked if she might have some. When Jo politely explained that we had just run out of bitters, I, having overheard, decided I would make a quick run to buy some and bring it back. I returned in about ten minutes with a new bottle of bitters much to the delight of the erstwhile couple at the bar who expressed effusive gratitude and proceeded to tell me their story which warmed my heart and serves as the inspiration for this blog post.
The Lanfords live in the Washington D.C, area and are recently retired. Just before Christmas, on Christmas Eve in fact, they were passing through Knoxville for the first time on their way to a vacation home in Arizona and accessed Open Table to search for an interesting restaurant that might be open. It seems The Grill met their criteria, and we were open, so they came in for dinner. Evidently they had such a pleasant experience with our food, service (they couldn’t believe that not a single member of our staff looked disgruntled at having to work Christmas Eve), and ambience with our decorations and wood burning fireplace, that they resolved to return. Last Saturday was the result of that advance planning as they were driving home, this time intentionally through Knoxville so they could return toThe Grill. Fortunately, I was able to return quickly enough with the bitters to make this visit equally sweet for them…and us. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Lanford for making my week!
TW
Words from Tom Weiss
OK, so now that I realize the reason I opened The Grill was to give me a good excuse to have a blog of my own, let’s get on with it.
We’ve been open almost two years! Unbelievable. It’s been a wild ride — so many new friends and so many re-connections with old friends. Thank you to all of you who have kept Chad, Ron, and me, and our whole staff, off the streets…at least for the most part.
It has been our goal from the beginning to provide our customers and our city with a high quality, distinctively local dining option. If our customers have out-of-town guests or family members, we hope they’ll bring them to The Grill because it speaks — through food, ambience, service, and Knoxville history — of where we live and work and of why we’re proud to live and work here.
TW
